Hell Is Empty, and All the Devils Are Here: Motionless In White - Decades (Album Review) Release: 7/17/26

 

Shakespeare once wrote that hell is empty because all the devils are here. Twenty years into their career, Motionless In White seem determined to prove the line true one track at a time. Some bands mellow with age. This one just gets heavier, stranger, and more sure of itself. On their seventh full-length, Decades, the Scranton quintet marks two decades together by looking backward and forward at the same time, and the result is one of the most ambitious records of their career. Recorded across Upstate New York and Los Angeles, Decades finds Chris Motionless, Ricky Olson, Ryan Sitkowski, Vinny Mauro, and Justin Morrow leaning further into the gothic-industrial-metalcore hybrid they've spent years perfecting, while still finding room to push into unfamiliar territory. It's an album that wants to have it both ways: nostalgic yet forward-thinking, and it mostly succeeds.

The album's bookends do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting. "Afraid of the Dark," the record's lead single, set the tone months ago with its blend of shimmering synths, breakneck metalcore riffing, and a chorus built for arena sing-alongs. The title track "Decades" closes the loop, pairing crushing rhythms with a story of resilience: a band that's weathered setback after setback and come out still standing. Chris has described the two songs as mirror images, both meant to capture the relationship between the band and the fans who've stuck around for the ride. In between, the record refuses to sit still. "Playing God," featuring Corey Taylor of Slipknot, is the album's most confrontational moment: a snarling, synth-laced indictment of online toxicity and bad-faith outrage culture, with Chris and Corey trading venomous verses like they're settling a score. It's a genuinely electric pairing, and Corey sounds unusually feral here, which is saying something. If the record has a single moment where the devils fully take the stage, this is it.

"R.I.P.," featuring Skylar Grey, swings hard in the opposite direction. Funeral synths and piano set the stage for a devastating meditation on love and loss not necessarily romantic loss, but the kind of fracture that can happen with anyone you're close to. Chris has talked about wanting to write something specific enough to feel personal but universal enough to apply to a falling-out with a friend, a partner, or a family member, and that tension is exactly what makes the song land. Skylar's vocal presence elevates it into one of the most affecting tracks on the album, proof that even hell has room for grief. Then there's "Blood Rave" and "Count Back From Zero," which together form the record's cyberpunk-nightclub detour. Both tracks lean into pulsing electronic textures and dancefloor-ready drops, with vocals swinging from a low, almost predatory croon into piercing falsetto. It's Motionless In White doing goth-rave theater, complete with the kind of blackout-lights-and-lasers moment that feels tailor-made for their live show proof that even hell needs somewhere to dance. 

"Blood Pact" brings an unexpected hip-hop bounce into the mix before collapsing into a detuned, chugging riff a genuine curveball that somehow still sounds like the band. Chris has framed it as a song about lifelong commitment to this music and this world, an initiation with no way out once you're in. Sign it, and there's no getting your soul back. Perhaps the most surprising moment on the album is the cover of Corey Hart's 1980s classic "Sunglasses At Night." The band has apparently been sitting on this idea for fifteen years, and the wait paid off as it's a faithful nod to the original, dressed up with blown-out distortion and the band's signature theatrical flair. It's a genuine surprise, but it fits the record's overall spirit of merging eras. Elsewhere, tracks like "log_in//crash_out," "Fight Like Hell," "All That I've Ever Known," and "Love At First Bite" round things out with the crushing riffs and dramatic vocal hooks longtime fans expect. In contrast, the bonus cuts  "Hollywood" and a reworked "Fight Like Hell" featuring Outlier offer a little extra for anyone who springs for the deluxe edition. What ties Decades together isn't a single sound so much as a mission statement. Chris has said the band was never afraid to take risks, and that even as they expand what Motionless In White can be, they're determined to hold onto the emotional core that got them here in the first place. 

That balancing act is evident throughout the record as a band that could easily coast on its established formula instead keeps reaching for new textures, collaborators, and ideas, without ever losing the heaviness or melodrama that made them who they are. Twenty years on, Motionless In White sound less like a band celebrating an anniversary and more like one just hitting its stride.  Decades don't look back out of nostalgia; they look back to show how far the road has stretched while they keep walking. Hell may be empty, but on this record, it sounds like every devil that ever left found a home here instead. Motionless In White didn't just visit the dark this time. They moved in.

Embrace the dark by watching the official music video for their track "R.I.P." feat. Skyler Grey:

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